I'm not a numbers guy, so when PFF throws their grades and ratings out there, it kinda makes my head spin. I more of an "eye test" fella. And it was easy to see Newhouse often didn't pass the eye test last season. But even though he struggled last year, I felt like he was on the right track. He was up against some PREMIER rushers last season, and he didn't break under the pressure. It was a trial by fire and I think he learned a lot last year. He's got the physical gifts, just needed time to get to where he was thinking less and reacting more. He isn't there yet, but I think he's well on his way. He had Justin Smith in week 1 and Julius Peppers in week 2. Not exactly patsy assignments. And he played decent. Like I said, he's on his way. I look for him to improve greatly throughout the rest of this season.

The real short version of PFF is they what each snap and grade each player, broken down by type of play and responsibility (-2.0 through +2.0)--pass vs run play for linemen, etc. The responsibility part is key.

The casual fan might yell at the wrong player because they don't see enough of the play. The biggest example of this is zone coverage. One might yell and scream at Burnett because a deep-right throw is completed and he's the closest Packer, but really Bush slipped and fell early. Burnett then makes a super great play just getting close and minimizing the damage. His real responsibility was deep left.

For line play, passing a stunt off to the correct player might be the right play, but if Lang messes up the stunt, Newhouse might look bad.

Short version, higher numbers mean doing more things right. Last year, he was graded very poorly. This year, he's doing rather well.

Good article and I like that site. It provided justification for many of us being worried about him this season based on his bad pass protection last season and reason for optimism so far this season. I listed Newhouse as one of the few positives from the 9ers game so I recognized improvement and of course I wasn’t the only one. As I re-watch games I’ve zeroed in on Newhouse and while I disagree he got beat “several times” in the first half by Peppers, I do see him look bad on occasion. Against the Bears the worst IMO was the sack by Shea McClellan. McClellan beat Newhouse around the edge so badly, Marshall barely got a hand on him. The consensus is he has the feet for LT and I agree, but on occasion he looks like his feet are stuck in the mud as a defender beats him to the outside. I still think Sherrod has a bigger upside but I do feel much better about Newhouse.

Still there is an OL problem. Rodgers has been sacked 8 times in two games.

Click to expand...

I remember reading somewhere a piece that broke down all 5 offensive lineman through the 1st two games, was very interesting. As I recall, it showed that Saturday and Bulaga have not been that good so far, that Sitton and Lang on the other hand have been more consistent.

Attributing sacks/hits/pressures to a particular player involves a fair amount of subjectivity, even if you're PFF. For example, I've seem Newhouse's sack count from last season variously reported as low as 8 (in this piece) to as high as 13 from other sources. Regardless of which numbers you prefer, the amount and quality of help factors in greatly. In any event, my personal "eye test" says Newhouse looks better...not great, but better.

Here's what I find interesting in this piece:

By my count, Rodgers dropped back 90 times in the first two games (77 passes + 8 sacks + 8 runs - 3 knee downs).

Yet SF and CHI brought their top speed rusher against Newhouse only 46% of the time (18 from A. Smith and 23 from Peppers) according to PFF.

I harken back to the pre-season debate on these pages about "how important is the LT?" The blind side remains very important...the highest risk of game/season/carreer ending QB injury comes from the blind side. Also, escaping the rush to make lemonade out of lemons is less likely if a guy gets beat on the blind side.

However, many defenses search out match-ups for their elite pass rushers. LT is less important against teams like SF and CHI who move their guy around; LT is a lot more important against teams like MIN who brings Allen exclusively from the blind side (at least prior to this season...I've not seem MIN play this year). It can change from year-to-year as we've seen with Matthews...all left side of the D last year with a healthy dose of contain and coverage responsibility; all right side of the D this year in "release the hound" mode.

It's reasonable to believe that Newhouse would improve with a year under his belt and a full offseason. He's a good player, he just needs to become a more consistent player. I hope the trend continues and Newhouse is a solid contributor for a very long time.

I know that he has had to try to handle two pass rush monsters through the first 2 games, but peppers did OWN him pretty bad. If he goes up against a medicore DE or LB on the rush, he can handle them fairly.

There has been an O-Line problem since last year this isn't a new thing and it should come as no surprise to see Rodgers sacked 8 times in 2 games. We have a young and developing O-Line it's just something that's going to have to go through its growing pains and we just have to hope to God nothing bad happens as a result.